May 18, 2009: at a court in Damanhur, Egypt, Judge Mahmoud Selim sentenced 24 men to death for a shootout in May 2008. It is the largest number of people to get capital punishment in a single trial in Egypt.
Eleven men were killed and three others wounded in the incident in the village of Wadi Matr, 110kms north of Cairo. Selim said the men were “hired as thugs by two private organizations fighting over land claims.” No date was set for the executions.
The sentences were immediately appealed. (Sources: Taiwan News, 19/05/2009)